This page will highlight Social Media Sites such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Linked In, My Space, Digg, Flickr, Google+, Pinterest, Mightybell. Choose a site and click onto the link provided. The homepage should provide you with more information regarding their use.

This link will demonstrate the use of Social Media worldwide.

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What is Social Media? How does Social Media work?


Have a look at this YouTube video to help answer these questions. This blog link for "LearningToday" contains some reading and thoughts about utilising social media in the classroom.

What is a chatroom? This link may provide some answers to the question. This quiz will assist you in consolidating your knowledge.

This link is an excellent tool for teachers, parents and students. The site, Digizen provides details and differences of some social networking and file sharing sites.



Social Media has taken a slight shift during 2012 - people are still sharing ideas, asking for comment/like responses. Have a look at how libraries are beginning to use Pinterest here.

Some Schools' Administrators are choosing to block many social media sites from classrooms and student devices while on the premises. This article provides an insight to the practice and there are many reasons to block social media in the first place. It is important to consider the future when making policy on any issue - and social media is not immune to the future. Many sites have social media attached; or commentary opportunities for students to contribute, share, read. Has social media been undervalued or short changed? What is the value of social media for educators and education and students? It is beginning to saturate the media world; is it possible to block the seepage? The article is well researched and the comments below are worth the read. Thank you to all the contributors for their viewpoints, too.

Another insight presented as an infographic diagram can be found here. This link is a Committed Sardine blog post that is linked to Facebook and there are professional comments attached to this article and diagram. The Links at the bottom lead to other conversations and news articles on the topic of Social Media and schools - can they work together?


TWITTER


What is Twitter? This tool is being used by educators in and out of the classroom. It is a tool that can assist in professional learning, and, if possible, should be modelled for this purpose when teaching young people. This LIVE BINDER designed by Sandy Kendall provides some interesting bookmarks regarding the use of Twitter for Professional Learning. Twitter can be linked to tools such as SCOOP.IT. This is a space that can be created by a teacher (from Twitter feeds and followings of the teacher) for the students to read through. A sample SCOOP.IT is here.

How can Twitter be used in the classroom? Edudemic provide an infographic here for some ideas. Year One's are creating tweets to share what they do in class. Read here - an article from the Committed Sardine Blog.

Another perspective is provided here - academics are discussing and investigating the use of Twitter as a learning tool.A link to the Committed Sardine article re Current Policy Trends is here (2013).

Scheduling Tweets

FACEBOOK


What is Facebook?

Over the last six months (January 2012 to June 2012) there has been a lot of blogging and posting about the advantages and disadvantages of bringing this social media tool into the classroom. Some of this literature, as well as educational studies into the area of social media and education can be found within the Professional Readings page of this wikispace. This link provides perspective from both viewpoints and teacher tips addressing how Facebook can be integrated into learning environments.

Although I have not professionally chosen to utilise Facebook as a communication and collaborative tool in the classroom, there are educators who are choosing this practice. Have a read of this blogpost to the possibility.


SKYPE


This tool connects people directly with video and voice. Many classrooms are using this as a collaborative tool (connecting students from different parts of the country, or world. There are teachers who are connecting with specialists or guest speakers using this technology - eg an Author visit can now be a SKYPE connection during class time.

Follow this link to see how SKYPE works for education purposes and explore ideas on how to implement in the classroom. This link also provides a search engine to find experts in (almost) any field. The technology is new - it may be one to watch for the future. I have heard that there are teachers in rural communities connecting with teachers in urban environments to explore the technology, connect with students from each of the classes and generally enjoy exploring the technology possibilities of Skype.



PINTEREST


This infographic provides an insight on how Pinterest can be used in the classroom. There are some warnings relating to the age of Pinterest account holders. Pinterest account holders have to "apply" to be a member, and include date of birth at time of application. This has been tested with url's that contain domains for education, and it works. This infographic provides graphic ideas how teachers can incorporate the following tasks with Pinterest:

Curate Content
Organise Ideas
Collaborate with Others
Allow students to work with Pinterest

How to Create Collaborative Boards on Pinterest and other ways to use Pinterest questions can be answered by Wendy Elwell. She has designed resources that can be found via this YouTube link . Her YouTube channel and website has other videos relating to Pinterest from beginners to working with Pinterest in Business.

Very Pinteresting - this tool is taking educators by storm. This blog post also contains author pinterest pages and other interesting pin boards using this tool. To view some of these boards, you will need to be a member.

Browse through this Pinterest Etiquette Link and, if you are thinking of implementing into the classroom, make sure students are aware of the etiquette rules.

Interesting to Me - a Pinterest Board curated by Jo-Anne Desailly.
Here is another link by Mashable - Top 10 Pinterest Pins this week.


QR CODES


What are QR Codes? To read a QR Code, an application on the smart phone is required.
How can I make them? Another way to make is by downloading the APP onto your smart phone - there is a module within the app for the purpose of creating simple QR Codes.
Kathy Schrock has provided some ideas on how these codes can be used in learning. Have a look here. There are some links to You Tube videos, too.
This link provides ideas on how to use QR Codes in school newsletters.

The Cool Cat Teacher Blog space provides interesting ways to integrate Quick Response (QR) Codes into the classroom.

LINKED IN


Have a look at this link - a great "Beginner's Guide" to Linked In.


EXTERNAL LINKS


  1. http://www.twitter.com
  2. http://www.facebook.com
  3. http://www.youtube.com.au
  4. http://www.linkedin.com
  5. http://www.myspace.com
  6. http://www.digg.com
  7. http://www.flikr.com
  8. http://pinterest.com/
  9. https://mightybell.com/home#
  10. http://www.personalizemedia.com/garys-social-media-count/
  11. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQFMH343ORk
  12. http://www.chatdanger.com/chat/setup.aspx
  13. http://www.childnet-int.org/yourcall/
  14. http://www.digizen.org/socialnetworking/evaluating-sns.aspx
  15. http://media-cdn.pinterest.com/upload/164944405072251236_luA2Xowl_c.jpg
  16. http://edudemic.com/2012/03/20-ways-libraries-are-using-pinterest-right-now/
  17. http://www.fluency21.com/blogpost.cfm?blogID=2600&utm_source=Committed+Sardine+Blog+Update&utm_campaign=b63f256269-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
  18. http://www.commoncraft.com/video/twitter
  19. http://www.livebinders.com/play/play_or_edit?id=301850
  20. http://www.scoop.it/
  21. http://www.scoop.it/t/learning-technology
  22. http://edudemic.com/2012/03/25-ways-to-use-twitter-in-the-classroom-by-degree-of-difficulty/
  23. http://www.fluency21.com/blogpost.cfm?blogID=2579&utm_source=Committed+Sardine+Blog+Update&utm_campaign=8d43ab8d1a-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
  24. http://www.twitip.com/11-websites-to-schedule-your-tweets-online-for-free/
  25. http://www.commoncraft.com/video/social-networking-facebook
  26. http://mashable.com/2012/04/10/pinterest-teachers/
  27. http://www.commoncraft.com/video/qr-codes
  28. http://www.tammyworcester.com/TipOfWeek/TammyWTechTipOfWeek/Entries/2012/1/24_Tip_110_-_Auto_Generate_QR_Codes_in_Google_Spreadsheet!.html


photo credit: Matt Hamm via photo pin cc
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